Cold Open: March Madness Post-Game
The NBA on TBS crew discusses March Madness.
• Yippee, a sketch about something I have no interest in. At least it’s not a political sketch for once.
• JAJ debuts an impression of Ernie Johnson, and, knowing him, it’s probably spot on.
• I liked the part where Kenny Smith (played by Devon) starts singing “Benny and the Jets”, and Johnson informing him that they’ll have to have to pay royalties to Elton John now.
• Pretty funny line from Kenan as Charles Barkley talking about how many companies Caitlin Clark is doing ads for, and saying that he’s only doing ads for three of those companies.
• Heidi’s actually doing a somewhat different Southern accent than usual for her role. I don’t know if this is because she’s imitating someone else or not, but I appreciate the switch up.
• The line about “resting QAnon face” was pure cringe.
• This was surprisingly tolerable for a cold open. If only the rest of this episode would grant me the same mercy…
Monologue
Kristen joins the Five-Timers Club.
• Rare speaking role by Lenny Pickett!
• It only takes a minute for this to become crowded with cameos, as Paul Rudd suddenly appears in the audience.
• “Awesome celebrity cameos”? Way to pat yourselves on the back, guys.
• Our second Paula Pell cameo of the season. She looks even more like a lesbian than usual.
• Matt Damon??!!?? He’s not even a Five-Timer!!! Oh wait, they have him do this lame joke about how his first time hosting was so good (I beg to differ) that it “counted for three”.
• UGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! Fred fucking Armisen yet again!!! On a lighter note, though, we get the return of Will Forte for the first time since his awful hosting stint a couple seasons ago! Oh, and Martin Short and Jon Hamm are there too, for some reason.
• Please don’t remind us of your awful Brett Kavanaugh impression, Matt.
• One last pointless cameo from Ryan Gosling, which reminds me that I have to review his horrible episode after this one.
• Does anybody really get excited for these Five-Timer sketches anymore? Nothing can beat the original, and that was 35 years ago!
Sketch: Jumanji
A woman hates board games because she’s afraid of being “Jumanjied”.
• The constant repetition of “Jumanji” is really getting on my nerves.
• Aaaaaaaand…this is still going on twenty minutes later.
• The only thing that makes sitting through this repetitive sketch worth it is the appearance of Will Forte as a creepy train conductor. Why couldn’t the whole sketch have this character in it???
• I did like Kristen’s character leaving everyone to die at the end.
• I know this sketch seems to be really popular, and to its credit, it is well performed. But I’ve never been a fan of sketches where they keep repeating a word or phrase over and over again. (See also: “Aw man, I’m all out of cash!”)
Fake Ad: Pilates
Two women try a Pilates class for the first time, not knowing the horrors that await them...
• Holy shit, Molly still exists!
• I love the announcer’s voice. Very dramatic and different from the usual Steve Higgins voiceovers.
• Great concept of treating an exercise program like a horror movie.
• Kristen is really, really good here. This is the kind of stuff I want to see her do, instead of her constant annoying “wacky” characters.
• Creepy visual of Ego stretching her leg to an inhuman angle.
• Figures that Bowen would be cast as the gay man with no underwear.
• My favorite creepy part is Molly calling in to inform them that they can’t come in today, only for the lady on the phone to somehow show up in Molly’s house.
• Punkie randomly shows up only to die immediately after. A perfect summary of how useless she’s been lately.
• I did not think I was going to like this as much as I did, but something about it just worked for me.
Sketch: Secretaries
Two wacky secretaries flirt with a lawyer.
• Why are we bringing this shitty sketch from the premiere back? Heidi has been doing pretty well so far this season, but this character had nothing to do with that.
• Nice to see Jon Hamm in this sketch. I mean, it makes sense, right?
• Heidi’s voice as this character is still very annoying.
• Now we have Kristen playing a second secretary??? This can’t be good…
• No comment on the scene where Heidi licks Hamm’s necktie.
• This is pretty much the same as the first installment of this sketch, except there’s two annoying secretaries this time instead of one.
• It looks like Kristen messed up her pratfall into the desk, as it doesn’t break apart right away, so she has to move around a bit to make it break.
• As if this couldn’t get any worse, Bowen starts cracking up at the lame jokes. Have I made it clear that I absolutely hate this man?
• I think that may have been worse than the last time they did this.
Sketch: Retirement Party
Jerry’s party is invaded by oddball characters.
• The return of these recurring “toast” sketches from Season 34.
• Surprisingly, this is the first we’ve seen of Mikey all night. Why in the world wasn’t this his last season?
• I love the headshot of Kenan in the background.
• Bowen’s character wasn’t necessary.
• “Gits n’ Shiggles” is a pretty good name for an improv group.
• Fred: “I wish we could talk about how much fun we’ve had over the years, but HR is here, a.k.a. ‘The Sex Police’”.
• Nice return appearance from Kristen’s oxygen tank lady.
• I even laughed at Marcello’s crude fart routine.
• YES!!! Will is back as Hamilton the creepy anti-Obama guy!!!! His new beard makes him look even more disturbing!
• By the time he got to the end of his speech and mentioned “Joseph Hussein Biden”, I was in tears.
• Definitely the highlight of this episode.
Musical Performance: “Escapism”
Weekend Update (featuring The Earthquake and The Eclipse, and Aunt Linda)
• Colin: “Well, yesterday, everyone in New York pretended they felt an earthquake.”
• Did you know that Michael Che hates women’s basketball??? What an unexpected and cutting edge joke!!!
• Ugh, time for another awful costume commentary, this time with Marcello playing an earthquake, and Kenan playing the solar eclipse. I liked this commentary better the first time…(assumes David Spade voice) when it was called “El Niño”! (Spade mode off)
• I swear, Che has laughed at every single one of his jokes tonight. Can we please get rid of him?
• Call it a hunch, but I think someone on the writing staff really really hates airplanes. As if we couldn’t tell from the one million airplane jokes we’ve had in the last few months.
• I had a feeling that we’d be getting an appearance from one of Kristen’s Update characters in this episode, but I wasn’t expecting it to be Aunt Linda, her first appearance since 2010. For those who don’t remember, she was that old lady who made rambling critiques on movies.
• She just called Colin “Seth”! What a hilarious and original joke!!!
• Colin, can you please stop explaining all of Aunt Linda’s jokes? Not that they were funny to begin with, but you don’t need to make them worse!
• Ooh, now they’re mixing it up. She just called Colin “Tina and Amy”! How original!
• I laughed at Aunt Linda saying that she thought The Bear was going to be about a hairy gay man raising kids.
• While Aunt Linda is definitely one of Kristen’s least annoying characters, I still didn’t want to see her come back.
• I can’t tell you what the last commentary I actually enjoyed was. This has been an awful year for Update, and it only gets worse…
Sketch: Go-Karts
Parents try to delay a bad secret.
• I love the look of James’ character.
• This is a really hard sketch to put into words, but it’s an excellent example of cringe comedy. It fills you with a sense of dread, but it’s also really funny.
• I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I’m really liking Kristen Wiig in tonight’s episode. More on this later when I wrap things up, but she hasn’t been annoying!
• James: “How would you all feel if I started drinking again?”
• Even the obvious twist at the end where we don’t get to hear the “bad thing” was well worth it.
Musical Performance: “Escapism”
Sketch: La Maison Du Bang!
PBS takes a look back at a pioneering French variety show.
• This sketch has been in the works since the Timothee Chalamet episode.
• I’m sick of when SNL has the hosts of their TV sketches say stuff like “I do this now” when introducing themselves.
• Making me worried is the fact that Chloe Fineman and Bowen are the two leads of this sketch.
• To Bowen’s credit, his French is really, really good.
• I’m loving all the Troast in this episode! Her scene here is really funny: she takes a drag off her cigarette, and her beautiful singing voice inexplicably gets rougher.
• I’m surprised at how much I’m enjoying this sketch on my rewatch.
• Good use of Kenan’s sex offender routine.
• Mikey’s scene as the creepy mime is my favorite part, especially the music that plays.
• Even though this sketch is definitely not something I would normally like, the energy was so infectious that I just can’t hate it.
Final thoughts: Am I going crazy or what? For a Kristen Wiig-hosted episode, this wasn’t that bad! In fact, I think it might be one of the strongest of the entire season! As shocking as it is for me to admit this, the reason for that is Kristen herself! To quote Jeff Montgomery, “Whaaaaat?”
Best sketches: The ending of Jumanji, Pilates, Retirement Party, Go-Karts, La Maison Du Bang
Worst sketches: Secretaries, Weekend Update
Next review: Ryan Gosling/Chris Stapleton. Now here’s an episode I was dreading to see again…
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